


Truth

by neverweremine



Category: The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:19:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverweremine/pseuds/neverweremine
Summary: "Did you - Did you punch Parker? God, this is hilarious. Osborn punched Parker!"Peter put his head in his hands. He was never gonna live this down, was he?
Relationships: Harry Osborn/Peter Parker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 62





	Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Note: I know the fandom says it's Spectacular Spider-Man fanfic, but I haven't seen the show in a decade and it's more like it's /inspired/ by SSM. So yeah.

"Pete, this isn't you," said Harry as he stumbled back, arms raised, as if that meant anything. As if he could hope to defend himself from anyone stronger than a 12 year old girl. Peter scoffed. The black tendrils roiled along his skin, laughing in its own silent way. "It's the black thing. It's making everyone act crazy. It's making you-"

"Better?" He took a step forward. "Stronger?" Harry took a step back until his back collided with the laboratory wall. "Not _pathetic_ like you?"

Harry trembled, knees shaking, but he lowered his arms and glared, "I'm not-"

"Oh, you are. Everyone knows it. Pathetic Harry Osborn, dumb Harry Osborn, too desperate for affection, he jumps at the chance to be included. It's why everyone ignores you, Harry. Too pushy. Too desperate. It's pathetic."

The glare vanished. Peter's heart sang as the truth tumbled out and Harry's face fell like a tiny tree in a windstorm. "Is that how you really feel?" The redhead whimpered.

"It's how everyone feels." He drew in close; until he could see the fear glimmering in dark green eyes.

"Then why stick around, huh? Why keep hanging around the dumb, desperate kid?"

"Why else?" Peter's grin was so wide it stretched the corners of his mouth. "Why else would anyone hang around a rich kid like you?"

"That's not…" Harry's chest heaved. His eyes darted to and fro. The fear in his eyes flickered like candlelight. "You don't even accept my gifts half the time, a- a- and it's not because Aunt May tells you not to. You're too _prideful._ What? Was this some kind of long con? Gonna ask me for a thousand bucks five years down the road and then leave me on read?"

Peter frowned. Harry was right. That wasn't the truth. The truth was...What was the truth? Peter dug inside himself, into something not yet tainted by the black ichor running through his veins, but once unearthed, the black surged into it like it surged into every other crevice of Peter Parker.

He cupped Harry's chin until they locked eyes. "The truth is, Harry," he said, willing the other to understand, "is you're weak and pathetic and desperate, but you're also kind. The truth is, Harry: you have a heart, and it's big and it's beautiful and you hate it because people think it's weak, and sometimes it does make you weak, searching for daddy's affection when all the affection you need is right here."

"Pete?" Harry asked as Peter leaned in.

"The truth is, Harry," he whispered, "you're weak." He placed a tender kiss upon his brow. "You're pathetic." His freckles. "You're kind." He pressed their foreheads together and tried to convey _The Truth_. "You're lovely."

Their noses brushed. He could smell the fear in Harry's breath. "I love y-"

Peter's head snapped back and his teeth gnashed together. He cradled his aching jaw as the black curtain that draped over his mind vanished. "Ow," he said, blinking the water from his eyes. "Okay, I deserved that but _ow._ "

Harry darted to his feet and grabbed a mason jar from the table. He slammed it over the _thing_ that had been influencing Peter - influencing them all - and crowed in triumph as the goo tried to escape but instead tackled the jar's walls uselessly.

"Uh," said Peter as Harry stood, mason jar cradled to his chest and a glint in his eyes. "I-"

Except that was when the rest of the class barged in, their eyes wide and panicked. Flash was holding a broom. "Where's that goo thing? I'm gonna punt it to next week."

"Got it handled, Flash." Harry said. He held up the mason jar and Flash's eyes darted from Harry, to Peter cradling his jar, and then back again.

"Did you - Did you _punch Parker?_ God, this is hilarious. Osborn punched Parker!"

Peter put his head in his hands. He was never gonna live this down, was he?

.

"Okay, Gwen, say you like someone-"

"I'm not going to talk to Sally for you-"

"No, no, this is a different someone. Look, I really need your advice."

She blew the hair out of her eyes. "What did you do this time?"

Peter held back a preemptive wince. Maybe asking for advice from one of your best friends about your crush on your other best friend wasn't the best idea. "So, say you, _hypothetically_ , put down someone in front of their face only to realize later you might have a huge crush on them and what you said might've been rude-"

She stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned stiffly towards Peter, like a clockwork tin soldier. Other students passed by them without a care but Peter was a frozen deer in the headlights. "Peter Parker, please don't tell me you're negging people now."

"Negging? I'm not - they weren't - it was an _accident_."

"First off, you are going to apologize to whatever poor soul you insulted with your big mouth. Second off, you're going to swear to never put down anyone ever again, _huge crush or not_ , because honestly, only regretting putting someone down because you realize you like them is a _dick move,_ Parker-"

"Okay, okay. I'll go apologize. Thanks for the advice, Gwen."

She still had a look like she'd be glad to rip his testes and feed it to the police dogs, so he quickly disengaged and let her be.

Okay. Apologizing to Harry after confessing. That's doable. He could do that…

He hoped.

.

They hadn't talked since the incident, and if it were under any other circumstance, Peter would be fine with that. They needed time apart and it wasn't like there was anywhere else Harry would go to, but now…

"How come you never told us you were a riot, Osborn?" Flash asked, delivering a meaty thwack to Harry's back.

Now Harry was hanging out with people - not just any people, the _popular_ people - hanging in the center like he belonged there. Peter clutched his backpack strap and ignored the slick-smooth oil feeling in his chest. So Harry became popular after punching his face; so what? It was only temporary. Fame was fickle and high school fame doubly so if you didn't have the right attitude; it wouldn't be long until Harry came back to Peter, came back to his real friends - awkward confessions or not.

Harry threw his head back and laughed, except it wasn't his normal laugh. Or, it _was_ his normal laugh, which was the problem. When Harry laughed in front of people, he used a fake laugh; a businessman's laugh or a game show host's laugh, something a little too forced to be real - one of the many singular efforts of a _Try Hard_ \- but this wasn't that laugh. This was his real laugh, the little hiccups in between breaths, a snort that could be called a fart, the little squeaks that resembled a dog toy...

 _Harry wasn't trying hard anymore_ which meant the things that Peter had fallen in love with, his laugh and his compassion and his sweet dorkiness; they weren't a secret anymore. They weren't _his_ anymore.

The oil-slick in his chest grew larger.

.

It was Harry that confronted Peter first.

"You know, I should thank you for this sudden burst of popularity. You were the only one that was willing to be honest with me, after all."

_Apology first. Don't screw this up, Parker._

"Harry, I'm so sorry. What I said back there, I didn't mean it. You're not pathetic and you're not weak -"

When Harry stepped forward, it was almost predatory. Peter found himself inching back as Harry came closer, until his back hit the wall. He gulped as Harry kept pressing in.

"Is that so? Does that mean you didn't mean the other things too? That I was kind? That I was lovely." He lingered for a bit, letting the tension build, "That you loved me?"

Peter's heart constricted. Harry was acting sly but he could still see it in his eyes - that wide and hopeful stare; so hungry for affection and validation. Was the popular kids' love not enough? Did he need more?

"Harry, what are you doing?" he asked as their noses brushed.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, his breath pushing against his lips, "Isn't that what you wanted to do? You wanted to kiss me, right?"

"Depends. You won't try to punch me again, will ya?"

His first thought as Harry leaned in was: ' _Oh, this is going to end in a train wreck.'_ But Peter Parker had never been a king of good decisions. and so his second thought as he reeled Harry in was, ' _Let it_.'

**Author's Note:**

> DEDICATED TO, the USM server (you know who you are) which was ironically talking a lot about SSM. It inspired me to finish this fic that was in my drafts since,,,,forever. 
> 
> Also, let's be honest, SSM!Peter is enough of a jackass that he'd have a low opinion of Harry while still loving him and SSM!Harry would be fucked up enough to go, "oh he loves me? time to make the moves". That's basically what inspired this. 
> 
> Also, I didn't read this through so please feel free to point out any mistakes


End file.
